Ontario gets vaccine for pregnant women
Last Updated: Thursday, November 5, 2009 | 3:18 PM ET
CBC News
Pregnant women across Ontario have begun receiving shots of the adjuvant-free swine flu vaccine.
"We now have enough unadjuvanted vaccine that is in the health units across the province ... that we can vaccinate all pregnant women," Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews told a news conference Thursday in Toronto.
Canada has purchased thousands of doses of H1N1 vaccine that lack a chemical booster called an adjuvant because there is limited data on the safety of the substance in pregnant women. Adjuvant is used to stretch a vaccine's active ingredient and boost immune response to the serum.
Clinics across the province started administering the adjuvant-free shots on Thursday, Matthews said.
The health minister encouraged all pregnant women to get the vaccine.
"They will be protecting not only themselves and people around them, but they will be protecting their unborn child, so it's doubly important that pregnant women get the vaccine," she said.
Public health officials have for weeks emphasized the importance of getting pregnant women vaccinated. Canada's chief public health officer, Dr. David-Butler-Jones, has advised pregnant women with underlying health conditions to talk to their health-care provider about getting the adjuvanted form.
Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq has also said that women who are more than 20 weeks into their pregnancy should similarly to their doctors about getting the adjuvanted shot.
Pregnant women are at greater risk of developing severe complications from the H1N1 flu than the general population, research has shown.
Over the past 11 days, clinics across the province have been administering H1N1 vaccines with adjuvant. So far, those clinics have been limited to those in priority groups — including pregnant women — who are at a higher risk of developing complications from the virus than the general public.
